The Pat and Barb Verly family and their 5 children, in laws and grandkids along with many prayer warriors have been drawn together by John's cancer... sharing daily for 8 months started this blog- Family Soul Story - Our faith, family, farm and now our cancer journey called HEALING have colored and deepened our world. WE continue to share and depend on the support of our prayer warrior community, that has lowered us into the Lord's presence for His healing!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

I am feeling very humbled this evening, and that is well deserved! I will see my mistakes, and take them to heart! I tend to judge, and that is not a good thing...
"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." Luke 6:37 So I pray that I will be forgiven for the hurtful things that I said out of stupidity! I will from here on not use this forum to judge or speak of others. I will look at myself alone... I am far from perfect, and ask your forgiveness at things... that may have inadvertantly hurt anyone, who has taken time to read what I share. Jesus, forgive me a sinner. Jesus, I trust in you. Amen

I was overjoyed to read the Gospel with Pat last night and realize that it is the woman, who touched the hem of his garment and was healed of a issue of blood that had been going on for 12 years! Mark 5: 21-43 This has to be one of my most favorite and powerful in an experience that I had through my daughter, Susan, who was attending ST Thomas in Catholic Studies, and at this point she was living in a discernment house with the group that is now the Handmaids of the Merciful Heart of Jesus - a new community that is in our diocese in New Ulm! I was invited up by Susan to a gathering called "Cora Jesu" or Heart of Jesus. Susan was to give a short meditation at the beginning, and it was short and very touching in her sharing of how much she loved Jesus and receiving him every day and adoring Him on the altar was her joy and honor. It was filled with humble love from a future spouse of Jesus, and a mother sat in the beautiful church filled with young excited people and wept. Then Jesus was processed in and placed on the altar, and around the base of the monstrance was placed a scarf type of fabric with the two ends flowing down in front of the altar, and those present were invited to come up and hold onto the hem of his garment while they lifted up their prayers and adoration! In front of the church Praise and worship music was going on- singing to Praise and Honor HIM! "Halleluia! Halleluia!" Little Sister Hallel/Susan chose this as her name - Hallel - because "whenever anyone says my name they are giving the highest praise to God!"

In a short time I will be spending some time in Adoration and I feel myself getting so excited - the best hour that I spend each week! When I have been spiritual director at a retreat and we have Jesus present - I have put the scarf around the monstrance so that those present can touch the hem of his garment in this special prayer time! Back to my experience of Cora Jesu... there were probably 4 priests present and reconcilliation was going on in the midst of this amazing sight and sound! So powerful! I watched with the eyes of my heart as a many went forward two at a time to grasp the end of the "garment" and gain His healing and Love! The most beautiful sight was a Sister, who has been a Bride of Christ for 25 years, kneeling in front of her spouse in this close communion of love! The watercolor that I started with today of the scene before me at this amazing life changing evening of Adoration/Reconcilliation/Praise and Worship/Witness of Love and Calling... along with the words of Danielle Rose's song, If I touch him... the pictures are of John's brain cancer and Fr Craig annointing him before he went for his brain biopsy, and the crucifix at St Joseph's hospital of the vision of St Peregrine - Christ reached down from the crucifix and healed him of cancer! John is now 2 years healed - no cancer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaCR24-tkWI Here is this amazing song for you to cry with this day! Danielle writes her music in front of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and it shows! Thank you, Danielle for this gift. I have used this song many times with talks that I have given at retreats. There is so much to it... as it reminds us that all we need is in the Eucharistic Lord we receive each and every day of our lives... it is there for us! He is still there for us to touch and be healed!

"A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Wanting to savor the amazing story of faith and healing just as it is shared in the Gospel today! May Jesus touch you in a special way this day and forward!

Jesus, we are forever changed by your love and healing! How we clung to the hem of your garment throughout our cancer/healing journey! We were lifted up by your sacraments and healed! We found strength in our faith and hope and trust in you being in control of the storm- of the cancer within John's brain! We rejoice and come forth and fall on our knees before the entire world to give you the honor and the glory, and the wisdom of your Church! WE found all that we needed in your Church for us to put one foot in front of the other and to walk forward into the unknown - knowing that you fed us with your Body and Blood - we touched you and you healed us! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"And again, jsut as the woman afflicted with an issue of blood believed truly and touched the hem of the garment of the Lord and immediatley received a healing and the flow of the unclean fountain of blood dried up, so everyone afflicted by the incurable wound of sin, the fountain of unclean and evil thoughts, if he only approaches Christ and begs prayerfully and truly believes in him, salvific healing from the incurable fountain of passions. That fountain, which has been sending up unclean thoughts, now fails and dries up through the power of Jesus alone.... The woman with the blood hemorrhage spent all her money on those who were supposed to be able to cure her, but she was not healed by them until she approached the Lord with genuine faith and touched the hem of his garment."

Monday, January 30, 2012

I had a mission to find some grapevines and when I heard that it could reach 50 degrees today... well, I decided that late afternoon I would head out in the car driving down the gravel roads and looking at the fences to see if I could just make a quick stop and grab some easily... Well, I came to the spot where probably 10 years or more ago I would go into the ravine and find them for the grapevine wreaths I would make for numerous family members over a span of about 4 years... I pulled the van over on a field path off of busy Hwy 59, and walked down the fenceline... I found some small pieces at one spot and then I moved out onto the black dirt in the field - it was dry enough not to stick to my feet! So I kept on walking back to the ravine, and I barely got my feet wet in the bit of snow here and there. I started walking on the edge and found a bunch of grapevines growing through the trees just a bit in and down the steep incline! Then it all came back - the Thorn Trees!!! The grapevines always grow and tangle through trees that have wooden thorns that come from the trunk as well as every little branch as well as bigger branch! So carefully I manuevered and cut til I had a big armload of precious grapevines, and dodged the thorn trees to find my way out without sliding down the hill and being impaled on the thorns everywhere! I felt proud of my accomplishment as I was much younger and more agile and thin the last time that I attempted to do this... plus it was in the fall and not January 30th! My van registered that it was 53 degrees as I drove away with the grapevines as well as some sweet little corn husk "flowers" made by nature that I picked up in the dry black corn field as I walked across it back to the car! I used to painstakingly make my corn husk flowers and these little beauties made me smile, as well as the mild warm late setting sun! So fun and so unexpected to have this delightful step back in time! Why? For a table arrangement that I need to pull together in a few weeks. I had the window down and the heat off, and was filled with wonder at the gift of this day! Thank you, Lord! Bless-bless

"I am the vine and you are the branches!"

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Simon laughed so hard when Nancy told the Simon at the desk to put his coat on and come home - "Oh, my goodness! There are two Simons!" She exlaimed and Simon just busted out laughing! It was special to be once again going from room to room with the 3 that attend the same school that Nancy, John, Pat and all of our kids attended! I know that Nancy would without hesitation love to have Augustine able to attend Holy Redeemer, but there is already talk of the Catholic school he will attend in Plymouth, and we are sure that will be wonderful too!

Walking in the door of the school... we were asked how many generations had gone there so far...I knew that Pat's mom had attended Catholic School through 8th grade, so we are on the 4th generation of Verlys/Lanoues! It has been wonderful and to see the pride and joy of our grandkids to show us the things that they do... it is a delight and a real walk down memory lane for all of us! Those 8 years since John left there just flew by! I am sure for Pat, when Ruth started going there - it was a similar feeling!

Ruth and Paul were gone on a Future Farmers weekend, and Paul speaks glowingly of how Ruth is blossoming before his eyes in her representation of Agriculture! Pat says that if Ruth had been a boy that she would have been his farmer, although she wears other hats that she serves the world with... Creighton Model instructor and wound care nurse - most importantly wife and mother! Such a testament to how being open to life and where the Lord through the wisdom of His Bride, the Church, will lead us! I will forever remember the day that she came home from seeing the doctor after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary, and tearfully telling me that the doctor told her no more children. I felt so horrible and responsible for encouraging her to Vback after having a C section with her first... I certainly didn't want to tell her to do anything that would endanger her and the baby, but I just knew that she should get a second opinion on such a monumental decision with her fertility! I encouraged Ruth and Paul to go and meet with the Catholic woman surgeon, who had saved her uterus after she had been airlifted to Sioux Falls - ruputuring her uterus as Mary was coming down the birth canal! They met with her, and she made them promise that they would not get pregnant for a year, and then with careful monitoring they would get the baby here by C section as soon as it was ready - she now calls David her gift, and in April after giving her womb almost 4 years between - she will have another child that would not have been here without prayers and being open to the call to LIFE! In order to promise the surgeon to wait out of necessity - they learned and followed the Creighton Model method - Ruth not only learned it, but she became an instructor and now helps other women, who struggle with fertility issues or need to wait for children for one reason or another! So wonderful to use natural means in which both spouses are involved in abstaining in the fertile times if preventing according to the wisdom of our amazing Church! When we use this system then there is always someone else in the picture - Christ and His Wisdom and will! So amazing to know that our divine providence includes the gift of our families! - how I prayed and cried that they could be here with us, but now looking at the complete picture I see that having them there is drawing our eyes and thoughts heavenward, and that losing them from this world makes us appreciate and genuinely love one another that much more! We are a very close family, and I see that this openess to LIFE is the root of our LOVE!

I know that there is a sense of uncertainty and a bit of worry amongst my daughters as the result of living through my own history of struggles with my childbearing years! Now my 3rd daughter has had 2 mischarriages in the last year, and both times I was with her! Now being pregnant once again in Texas while her husband is in the military... the first thing she told me was that she didn't want to see me for her first trimester..."Mom, you can't come and see me!" She said in a joking but very real tone! The day she came home from her ultrasound and took 3 year old Therese on her lap... she told her that the baby had died and gone to heaven and the two of them cried long and hard together! How I had prayed that my girls would not have to experience the loss that I had... yet I see that they have such a deep sense of respect for LIFE in their openess to family and also in the ways that they minister to the world in LIFE issues! I see them taking stands for LIFE and working to promote LIFE in many ways! I see that my parents also influenced me in this way, and shortly after we were married I joined Birthright - "I want to do something for LIFE... I don't just want to say that I am prolife... I want to BE PROLIFE!"

Jesus, I am so grateful for the way that you have been in control of my life! The Most Cherished Cross of marriage and family has been hard at times, and the tears have been rivers at times... now I can see the wisdom of the losses and the ones that are watching out for us from heaven - 6 angels that we shall meet someday! Our eyes are drawn heavenward and the day of meeting shall be so filled with wonder and JOY! Thank you for this weekend with family to remind us of all the blessings that have flowed over us as we follow the path called Faith/Family/Farm! I had always felt that the farm was such a wonderful place to raise our large family, and although it really didn't quite work out as we thought it would - it is the best ever! The wisdom of my husband,when at our engaged encounter, even I was confused by the lies of the world that it is selfish to bring little ones into this mess of a world..."The world needs lights!" he said so stong and clear and without hestitation! Yes! The world needs lights, and the Most Cherished Cross has become the blossoming Tree of LIFE! I am overwhelmed by the Truth which comes from the Holy Spirit within the Temple of our Souls! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens." Ephesians 1:3

The words of St Paul are amazing!

"Rejoice in the Lord always, I shall say it again: Rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Those big brown eyes are so familiar - my little Eskimo baby - Nanuk of the North! Augustine has his momma's chocolate brown eyes - so big and dark brown and so ready to close at breakfast after mass... that is until grandma started feeding him his first pancake with syrup! He realized how wonderful big people food is, and perked up before our eyes! I think I mashed up almost a whole pancake and fed it to him... Yummy!

Blowing bubbles even looks cute with those big brown chocolate eyes and that smiling teddy on your sweatshirt and your face! You melt me Augustine William! Such a gift to your grandma! Bless-bless

Godfather Paul thinks that you are pretty great too! And it is nice that you had a clean face this time too...

Reflecting on the glowing sunset, and the beautiful chocolate eyes at sunset!

The sun was setting and beckoning us outside for some photos with the two little boys and a kitty stuck in Davey's pocket... Too fun! I am still a bit foggy after switching back to being up and around on days. I realized that I missed mentioning the Gospel from Saturday, which was the same one that was read on Father's day 2009 - the day that we took John into the ER here in Marshall and found out that there was something "abnormal" in his brain! It is the story of Jesus in the boat sleeping in the stern of the boat - thinking about how exhausted he was leaving the crowds on the shore and crossing over to the other side! One thing that I am noticing as we read through Mark these last few weeks is that there are always huge crowds of people around him - pushing and shoving and he is healing and preaching the Gospel of Life and healing to them! It always seems like there is hardly any way to move and he is always in the midst of this huge need! "Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus in the boat just as he was." Does this mean that he was staggering tired after all the ways that he ministered to the crowd? No wonder he fell asleep and was not aware of the storm, and to suddenly..."They woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?' He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, 'Quiet! Be still!' The wind ceased and there was a great calm." Mark 4:35-41

We experienced that feeling as though Christ were sleeping and not caring about our welfare... we were reminded by little sister Hallel in France - we called her to give her the news of this shocking revelation before we headed down to get another more precise scan in Sioux Falls. "Mom, do you remember what the Gospel was today?" Little Sister Hallel asked me..."Well, this is the storm and Jesus is in control." He cannot be defeated by darkness or the storm! Jesus, can command all those forces that are trying to overwhelm us or pull us under! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"Then they came to Capernum, and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority.." Mark 1: 21-28 The Gospel for today reminds us that Christ is the Word come to earth to show us the path to eternal life! How we love to listen to His Word with our hearts, minds and souls! We never stop growing or learning! Thank you, Lord!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vj0qKthCgg&feature=related... this U tube story is amazing the testimony of a atheist professor, who had a near death experience and went to hell - he forever changed and is now a minister! This made me take to heart to pray and truly work hard to help those in my life that do not believe! I need to be more serious about this prayer and more! Watch this and see how he cries every time he remembers the experience with the demons! So powerful!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

While I have been working overnight - Pat has been in charge of Ruth's kids and now Nancy, Bill and Augustine along with John are home to take over. So with family to go and see... I just wanted to share this amazing link about St Thomas today -

Silly jumping picture... I can't resist using the amazing words of St Thomas to share the key to happiness ..."The Cross is a remedy, for, in the face of all the evils which we incur on account of our sins, we have found relief through the passion of Christ. Yet, it is no less an example, for the passion of Christ completely suffices to fashion our lives. Whoever wishes to live perfectly should do nothing but disdain what Christ disdained on the cross and desire what he desired, for the cross exemplifies every virtue.

If you seek the example of love: Greater love than this no man has, than to lay down his life for his friends. Such a man was Christ on the cross. And if he gave his life for us, then it should not be difficult to bear whatever hardships arise for his sake.
f you seek patience, you will find no better example than the cross. Great patience occurs in two ways: either when one patiently suffers much, or when one suffers things which one is able to avoid and yet does not avoid. Christ endured much on the cross, and did so patiently, because when he suffered he did not threaten; he was led like a sheep to the slaughter and he did not open his mouth. Therefore Christ’s patience on the cross was great. In patience let us run for the prize set before us, looking upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who, for the joy set before him, bore his cross and despised the shame.
If you seek an example of humility, look upon the crucified one, for God wished to be judged by Pontius Pilate and to die.
If you seek an example of obedience, follow him who became obedient to the Father even unto death. For just as by the disobedience of one man, namely, Adam, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one man, many were made righteous.
If you seek an example of despising earthly things, follow him who is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Upon the cross he was stripped, mocked, spat upon, struck, crowned with thorns, and given only vinegar and gall to drink.
Do not be attached, therefore, to clothing and riches, because they divided my garments among themselves. Nor to honors, for he experienced harsh words and scourgings. Nor to greatness of rank, for weaving a crown of thorns they placed it on my head. Nor to anything delightful, for in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."

Jesus, we embrace your Most Cherished Cross and realize that through it we find LIFE and learn to LOVE as we are called to as followers of you! Thank you for the beauty of the Tree of Life - the Cross - it is covered with fruit of every type and color, leaves and branches as we allow the seeds to be planted in fertile soil and to grow 100 fold! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"In a similar way man puts no measure in his faith, his hope, and his charity, but the more he believes, hopes, and loves, so much the better man he is. That is why it is said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength." Dt 6: 5"

ST Thomas Aquinas (1274) Doctor of the Church...

more quotes

" Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand."

" How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God."

Friday, January 27, 2012

Finding these gift pictures taken a year ago of Mary out with her Snowball. She was easier to find as she was with just another 20 heifers in a seperate lot... now she is with over 120 cows waiting to have their calves in about a month. It is quite a job for Mary and I to find her, but a few weeks ago we did. I promised a friend that I wouldn't whine about working overnights at the nursing home, I am such a person that goes to bed early and loves to sleep at night... that it is hugely hard for me to turn my world upside down by working all night and sleeping in the daylight! I just don't feel normal again for quite a while. I give my sister, Paula, huge credit in all the years she has worked full time nights as an RN in a huge nursing home up in the Cities. She has weekends and days off and has managed to come and join the living during the day without any signs that she is having to regain normalcy! Paula you are amazing and I wish that I could be half as accepting and adapting as you are! The title of this entry - upside down world - could be something much more major than working nights and sleeping days... many people have much more major things turning their world upside down! I have a bad habit of watching the celebrity news that comes on after the news at night... and they live a false and screwed up life- filled with empty values and throw away friendships and marriages! The children that are born into this priviledged and false world have so much that keeps them from the TRUTH!

Why are we so interested in these sad cases of lives out of control? It makes me curious but sad to watch how fame, wealth, beauty, and all the things that the world tells us will bring us happiness... is the wide road to the total opposite, complete and utter misery - hell, to be blunt! I will never forget that Pat confronted this head on lately and also our speaker on Sunday - Mary Ann Kuharski..."No, I don't just want my kids to be happy! There is false happiness! I want my kids to get to heaven!" So wise and so true! Jesus, thank you for the Truth that leads to eternal life! I pray this night for all those that are blinded by celebrity and are living for the false happiness and all the attempts to find happiness in things and appearance. That is the main reason that I found such happiness working as a hospice nurse - it takes everything false out of the picture- when you are dying all that matters is your faith and your family! All that truly matters in this world! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

The Seed that Grows

"God's omnipotence always works through compassion. It is precisely God's Glory that makes him the Father of the destitute. His glory becomes their shelter, their home, their destined abode for all eternity.

Our business, then as Christians and as contemplatives

-perhaps our only business- is to work tirelessly at becoming destitute and needy orphans and widows who rely only on the mercy, goodness, and power of God...

Christian life is at bottom about being continually rejuvenated and re-created by the power of the Spirit; but this cannot happen automatically: we must want to be made young and new again and cooperated in this process...

The authentic Christian is the person whose heart is perpetually open like the good earth to receive all these seeds of the Word into itself and to water them with tears of love and compunction and desire, in order to allow them to come to full harvest in the Lord's sight."

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Just before we headed to Rochester for John's stem cell - we gathered as a family to see the new little David Joseph baptized! I am working overnight at the nursing home tonight, and know that I won't be up to posting in the morning on John's 2nd birthday as the result of his stem cell transplant after dropping the bomb on his immune system - he had to take his baby shots over! So I went back to our enties in caringbridge for the day of his transplant.... so I have added them to share our feelings on this monumental day... now 2 days later without cancer we know that the seeds were good and were planted on good soil - the prayers are watering the seeds now and always!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 6:17 AM, CST

"The guys are in John's room on the transplant station here in Methodist hospital... trying to sleep for a few hours as the IV fluids run in... John is showing his nerves in unconscious ways... his usual amazing ability to sleep any and all the time escaped him during the night. "I didn't sleep at all!" greeted us when the alarm went off at 4:45a.
We prayed in his room and blessed him with Lourdes water... when his dad blesses him... he pours the water on his head... morning prayer with each of our prayers voiced out loud... some tears when we prayed that the stem cells may "joyfully reenter his body" and head staight to the bone marrow and start the healing John needs and wants... "for the end of the cancer." brought a flood of tears... also when John prayed that he could leave "jumping and leaping and praising God!"
The picture today will be of a very beautiful and peaceful scene that Pat and I came across yesterday... we traveled over an hour out of Rochester almost to Wisconsin... Pat had been looking at a used tractor on line, and so we took a trip to see it first hand. We have a new appreciation of the river bluff area you pass through to get to Caledonia, Mn.
Very beautiful with the white landscape and the hills rising up as a backdrop and charming farms nestled in the landscape. This one with its picturesque red barn and horses in the back... always have an eye out for those for granddaughter, Mary... age 3 1/2. She is starting to save nickles, dimes and pennies to "buy a horsey". Our favoite book... Cowardly Clyde... it went from the fast version to the actual reading of the words only in the last year...
Tears shed also as we talked about the wonderful times that I was allowed to have with the 3 grandkids that live close to us in Marshall... how much I love them and they love grandma... Now they are blessed with Paul's mom (grandma Lanoue) watching them when Ruth has to work.... and I have heard that Mary is read to to her heart's content...I told Pat...."I bet I cried like this when our kids grew older... those young years are so precious and special!" I guess you could say... I am feeling emotional!
John will have IV fluid til about 9:30a... he will get some premeds at 9a, and then the stem cells will be returned taking about an hour... So around 9:30a-10:30a special prayers for the stem cells to "joyfully" enter his body and go to work... returning John to LIFE... life without cancer, and many years ahead to a ripe old age! His new birthday of resurrection to new life... Jesus we love you and ask you to hold John in the palm of your hand. Raise him as you did your friend, Lazarus!
In morning prayer the beautiful picture of our Lord as the good shepherd... From Isaiah40..."Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; In his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care." The three of us need you to carry us, Lord, through this dark valley of the unknown. Jesus we trust in You. Amen and Alleluia! The Verlys
In thinking about granddaughter, Mary.... A humorous story to lighten our moods and hearts... Our daughter, Ruth (Mary's mom) was talking to Pat on the phone one day. Mary was walking past her and Pat could hear Ruth say: "Mary what are you up to?" "Don't worry about it mom." was her responce as she walked towards her bedroom with a handfull of cookies. "Talk on the phone mom." ONe of those times as a parent that you hear the words you say yourself... come back to you in the voice of one of your children. Needless to say that the cookies were rescued after Ruth got off the phone... but has discovered that Mary has little secret places for "staches" in her room...
When all the candy canes were missing off the Christmas tree the first morning after they were put on their... as high as a 3 and 5 year old could reach... and one was stuck to the 1 1/2 year old's PJ... a pile was eventually found in Mary's room. Hope this family antics lighten your day as they do ours... Maybe Mary thinks she can sell her piles of goodies for money to buy her horsey? I think it is called a "sweet tooth" however!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 10:55 AM, CST

The "seeds" have been planted! Every last one of the 4.94 million are carefully returned to John and they "home" into his bone marrow and produce...."bear fruit thirty, sixty and a hundredfold."Mark4:20....How joyfully we exclaimed when two different nurses called his stem cells "seeds". The whole thing took only 15 min!
At 6a this morning we read the Gospel of the day together... Mark 4:1-20 The sower and the "seed". Now we truly know that our Lord... the Savior Farmer is with us and in control of the planting for John's good health and long life! Jesus we trust in You! Thanks for all of your amazing support... You all are our angels! Pat, Barb and John at Methodist Hospital in Rochester "

Thank you Lord for the healing of our son... we lift him up to you and ask that you show him the path to follow as he carries the banner of life forward! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

The two Davids two years ago...

The Gospel for today - Jan 27. 2012!!!!

Jesus said to the crowds: "This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come."

He said, "To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky dwell in its shade."

Mark 4: 26-34

Yes, Lord! The seed has taken root and flourished! WE thank and praise you on this the feastday of NEW and RESURRECTED LIFE!

Maria had just given birth to little Dave a month before... as we were wrapping up John's 6 weeks of radiation as we stayed at their house each night.

There have been 3 new grandchildren since this taken 2 years ago... two are in heaven and one is with us, and two new ones are on the way...

grinding snow through the front tire of the tractor... it was a snowy winter two years ago...cold and white!

So pretty!!!!!!!! I think this was just before we headed to Rochester knowing that we would possibly be there for up to 2 months with John's stem cell transplant. Tomorrow is John's second birthday - the tests were over, the collection of stem cells was done, the chemo was wrapping up today, tomorrow we checked in and the very BIG occassion happened - John's stem cells came into the room in a small innocent looking bag... along with 3 nurses! This was a big deal! This was the rebirth of John! So many prayers were being prayed that day!

This morning I was curious to go back to caringbridge and remember the kind of day we had - getting mentally and spiritually and physically prepared for our stem cell the next day! Pat was there too! I cut and pasted our entry for the 26th...

"It is a different day... Pat took John in this morning for his usual check up. It is nice to have a day off from the running, and Pat takes the role of the caregiver today. John continues to feel well, and ate a good breakfast along with the numerous antibiotics and antifungals that he takes morning and night. He is as of this morning off of steroids once again, so his energy level will drop along with the increasing damage to his cells from the chemo... so far we are enjoying the "good" days with him.

Pat will also be here in the morning... when we head in at 5a for the stem cell transplant... His new birtday arrives bright and early... I have a bunch of birthday candles in the cupboard for a week from now... but I might have to break out a few for tomorrow! Please prayer warriors ...we need you with us tomorrow for the big day of "resurrection"!

John prayed for all of you this morning; "Bless all the people praying for me. Give them the graces that I have been blessed with along this journey." Those graces include: HUMILITY, compassion, gentleness, humor, acceptance, courage, trust, loving attitude, calm, peace, willingness, strength.....

Once again morning prayer was shared by the three of us sitting in our comfortable living room after breakfast... after the guys had read an article about the Twins on line...

The morning meditation titled... How to do the Will of God by Dom Augustin Guillerand, O Cart. (1945) - a French Carthusian monk and a revered spiritual author.

"Be calm, infinitely calm, both in soul and in body. Do not attempt too much, but what you do, do well and gently....We must make use of all that Divine Providence sends us: reverses, falls even; bearing always in mind the good that the Holy Spirit wants to draw from these things.... The Holy Spirit also makes use of reverses to correct our faults and set us on our way again. Use everything, then, with this end in view; in all weathers, keep your compass pointing to God; make Him your aim."

The last day of John's radiation - he had rung the bell marking the end of his daily radiation of his brain and was gifted(?) with the personalized mask he wore so that he wouldn't move and get the affected areas with the radiation!

Continuing with the entry from caringbridge - Jan 26, 2010...

"The "storms" of life toss us around, O Lord. You are there walking across the water to us... calming the storm... teaching us to trust in You... no matter what... our faith becomes stronger at these times of trial and "reversals" from the path of life we think we are going down and then it all changes... So many graces comes to us as we follow you into the dark valley. "If you want us to... we will follow you there." Jesus, we trust in You! Bless-bless, Pat, Barb and John Verly... the Three Muskateers.... united we stand in Rochester!

John and Pat just walked in the door... His WBC's are down from yesterday... dropping from 2.9 (normal is 3) to 1.6 today... It shows that the chemo is at work... Prayer needs to be mixed in for it to work at its optimum and protection for John. Everything else is going along OK... John is resting on the couch... resting on this day of rest!

Thanks Marcia and all you prayer warriors back from Guatemala... John went there with a group of youth from Marshall the summer before his senior year... mentioning your "prayers on the mountaintop"... brings back for him the beauty and simplicity of life in Guatemala. Thank you and blessings! "

Our family Christmas was around New Years that year due to all the weather and treatments etc!!!!!! But it was a memorable one with the fun crowns made by Nancy and John. Little did we know that it was a party for NO Cancer ever again!

Lord, it is so good to look back to this very huge time in our family - the final step in John's healing and defeating the giant once and for all! We were forever changed by the Cross called cancer/healing, and there were so many that shared the power of prayer with us! How we depended upon all of those that prayed us to healing! John came to know you through this journey - he is the new and different John and is now willing to share his light as the Gospel of today - Jesus said to his disciples, "Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible; nothing secret except to come to light. Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear." How I love when you speak to us, O Lord! Your words have the key to everylasting LIFE! Thank you for the JOY and HOPE of this anniversary of John's resurrection to new life! We hold it close to our hearts and souls - knowing that you have great ways that John will be used in this world. Looking at how his cancer journey alone and healing touched so many - most especially his family! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!

Bless-bless, Barb

"I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?' 'Here I am,' I said; 'send me!' " Isaiah 6:8

St Timothy and Titus pray for us on this your feastday! We love and need all the amazing prayers we can get! We rely on them and they are the air that we breath and the wind beneath our wings!

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This was taken on Easter Sunday in Colman, South Dakota about 12 years ago!

My dad had done the unthinkable - said yes to being a Deacon in Colman, South Dakota just 60 minutes from our door to their door of the rectory... they had promised to help out as parish administrator of a small town chuch and to help out in the other cluster churches. It was my parents first contact with living the farm life other than second hand through a visit here and there to our farm. Now they were immersed in farm life and loved it! I loved the fact that for 3 years I could jump in the car and go and hang out with them for an afternoon here and there! It was amazing! Soon their 3 years were at an end and we all gathered for a huge family celebration of Easter... we filled the social hall with our huge family... I am the oldest of 11 with over 30 grandkids! The wind of the Holy Spirit was howling as our family gathered in front of the church doors for a family photo... it made us smile to have the wind roaring at us with the fury that only the prairie can muster!

How I love the pictures of the kids in Big Shoes! Adorable!

What is it about the kids walking around the house in mom or dad's shoes? I think that it is a form of flattery... they like to see mom of dad in those shoes so it makes them feel like they are looking like their beloved parent of just acting big like them! I remember my 3rd daughter, Maria, was so in love with her daddy... she would crawl around the bedroom and drape his socks around her neck that she had picked up off the floor just as a token of her love for him. I have a group of pictures in the bathroom that are just of that theme... Wearing mom and dad's shoes. I think that it is about as cute as can be... and also a wonderful tribiute to a child's love and appreciation for their parnets. I have now seen my 3 grandchildren that live closeby and spent much time with us also put on mostly grandpa's shoes which are usually over by the door and walk around in them... I think that a lot of that reflects that love and appreciaion that they have for him and his loving sharing ways with them. Now a generation later I have watched now grandpa LOVE each one of those kids so specially by showering them with the time by taking them along outside or allowing them to sit in his lap and share his meal when he comes in late for a meal... The same scene that I saw with our 5 kids and the resulting love and appreciation and respect! Who knew wearing his shoes was a sign of love and devotion?!?

The absolutely amazing letter that Susan/Little Sister Hallel sent to Nancy about marriage...

Nancy was engaged to Bill Bandzuch on April 10, 2010... We are all so happy for her as she has waited long for her Catholic man to come into her life. She had stood by her values and as a result it was especially sweet and special when she joyfully accepted Bill's proposal! We all gathered in Maria and Joe's back yard to help them celebrate that afternoon minus her sister in KC... Little Sister Hallel. We called her and she spoke to each one of us and even her neice and nephews ! A month later Nancy found this letter from her sister in the mailbox. It was mother's day and she called me to read it to me over the phone. I was blown away and at first thought how crazy it was that a young girl,who had answered the call to remain chaste and be a little sister had so much insight into marriage! But when I realized that she is now the "bride of Christ" it now makes all the sense in the world! I would like to once again share this powerful and wise letter here... Nancy, Look I am writing you a letter... aren't you impressed? Well, you better be because both you and I know how often this happens. I am writing to tell you now extremely excited I am about your engagement to Bill. I have to admit, when I got the news I wasn't really shocked but that night as it sunk in during adoration and the next day during mass I was so happy. My heart overflowed with joy for you. How beautiful to know that you have found your... most cherished cross. While I have never had the experience of being married, from what I hear is that he will truly be your cross. But not your cross as human eyes look at it, as a thing to run away from, as a thing of torture but rather as that which is truly the tree of life. It is only when clinging to the cross that one can truly live, it is the source of all life and of all love. Your marriage to Bill will be this, not something to run away from when it gets hard and when it hurts, but something to hold tight to, especially when it hurts because it is in this that you will find life and love. Know that it is through your marriage that Jesus wants to show you his great love for you and also that the best example that you can give to the world of Christ's love is a marriage lived in truth. So, in other words, know that I am so happy for you and that I love you a whole lot. Know that you are in my prayers during this crazy time of wedding planning; that you may not go crazy but rather learn to love each other better and that you may both have great joy and great peace. Remember to pray for me too! God Bless, Your little Sister Hallel

My sister Mary and I in the barn in our barn clothes when she was here to help us... 1982

I was not pregnant in this picture so it must have been after Nancy was born... Mary was soon to leave us sadly... she had fallen in love with the farm and did a few years later meet her dairy farmer - they married and had a daughter before she died of lymphoma at the age of 28... Some things in life are a mystery.. someday we will understand.

Our daughters, Nancy and Little Sister Hallel/Susan, with John in Lourdes, France.

Little Sister Hallel had just taken the habit of the community of the Lamb and changed her name a few days before this taken in August of 2009... John, Nancy and I had gone to help her celebrate this huge step in her life! John had just been diagnosed with brain cancer and had just completed his second chemo and was better, so within 24 hours we decided that we would fly to France! We visited Lourdes and all bathed in the healing waters which miraculously flow from the spring where St Bernedett was told to dig in the mud! John said that the day was "very good" , and for him that is saying a lot! This past winter Pat and I were in a study group of a book written by Matthew Kelly called Rediscovering Catholicism... this paragraph on p48 is amazing and so wonderfully defends the choice of religious life but also the joys and beauty of this life! I quote: "In every age, there is a small number of men and women who are prepared to turn their backs on popular culture and personal gain to embrace heroically the life Jesus outlines in the Gospels. These people fashion Catholicism into a lifestyle, they listen attentively to the voice of God in their lives, and they passionately pursue their personal adventure of salvation. As a result, they capture the attention and fascinate the imaginations of everyone who crosses their path. Paradoxically, the modern world pities these people because it believes they are missing out on something. Never feel sorry for them. These men and women are the happiest people who ever lived. They are the saints. If the Church is to thrive in this modern era, it depends on men and women like these."

Sitting on the front porch of our home in Minneapolis - me and my friend Marge a few years after..

This was taken a few years after we met while attending welcome week at the U of M in 1970! I did not know at the time that Margie would be responsible for the rest of my life - my meeting and a year later marrying her brother, Pat... I have written many cards to her over the years telling her in every way possible that because of her I have my life. We will celebrate our 32 anniversary this summer, so she has been in my life more than not! Thank you Margie Rose/Raterra Rashana for being such a loyal and true friend... there is no doubt that you were put in my life by our loving forgiving Lord ! Your life growing up on the farm in Southwest Mn is now my life and our children's lives are blessed as a result! How I rejoice at the Lord's fingerprint on my life! Jesus I trust in You! Please bless my dear friend now and forever. Amen and Halleluia!

My sister Mary at the baptism of my daughter, Nancy Anna.. She is Godmother and my dad is baptizing

In 1982 my sister, Mary, came to help me while I was on bedrest with my second daughter... I had high blood pressure and was on bedrest, so Mary came to help me around the house with my 2 year old Ruth and help Pat milk the cows. She was a city girl like me, but fell in love with the farm and we loved having her with us! After Nancy was born on April 2 we asked Mary to be her Godmother. We realized after I was on my feet that she needed to move on, so tearfully she went up to live with my folks in TF. She eventually became a doctor's office nurse and on a blind date met her farmer, Gerry.... he was a dairy farmer in Wisconsin. They married and had a daughrer, Audrey.... When Audrey was 20 mo Mary died of Lymphoma... Gerry is now married to Cathy, who had 5 kids and her husband drowned in the river up there...

Snapping beans with the 5 klids as we are in Taylors Falls visiting my parents in the summer of 92

I was in the thick of bean harvest in my garden when I took my kids to spend some days in the summer with my parents... probably late July of 92... WE picked them and brought them along to snap at my parent's house. We have such wonderful memories of our days spent in Taylors Falls at their remodeled cape cod house up on Angel Hill. Now after 14 years of liiving on Lake Michigan in Manistique in the upper penninsula... my parents have bought a home on the St Croix River in St Croix Falls, Wi which is right across the river from Taylors... I am thrilled that now my parents will be close enough for me to go and see them for the day or for a few days much more often! I loved to go to the big lake, but so missed my parents being closer so that I could spend time with them! Thnak you Lord for this move and may they continue to be a wonderful presence in my life for years to come!

The wedding shower that the friends from church and daily mass put on for Pat and I in my mom's

My friend Marilyn just had given Pat and I wonderful rosaries for a gift... we were both very touched and how much better does it get? To have a Catholic Shower! It was wonderful and the rosary has been huge in our marriage too!

Pat's mom took this picture after milking the cows one morning shortly after we were married.

Typical old camera quality - this was after we were done milking the cows with the baby calves... with dairy calves...they are taken off of their mothers at birth so that you and I can drink the milk...they start out on a big bottle and then graduate to pails of milk. That was one of my jobs out there as well as giving each cow some protein to eat while Pat was moving down the line milking them. I also would help undo the headgate when he was done so that they could go out of the barn. Pat of the time I would sit on an upside down pail and watch him milk the cows and sometimes we would visit. I married a farmer and I found these times special to the point that when Ruth was born - I would bring her over and put her strapped in her infant seat close to the heater in the milk house... she was born Jan 4, 1980... Soon my in laws told me to bring her in the house and put her in the bed with them while I helped Pat... Ruthie got to know her grandparents really well and has early memories of waking up and seeing a certain light fixture over their bed and the warm feelings that go with snuggling with her loving grandparents morning after morning! They even took a movie of her first steps dressed in different outfits day after day that we have never seen! Got to do that someday! The early years were special for many!

Pat comes to visit me in the Cities as things slow down a bit on the farm - cross country skiing...

This picture was taken by my younger sister, Mary... she is now gone for 24 years due to cancer at the age of 28! Pat had come to visit me and we decided for him to wear one of my brother's boots and try cross country skiing for the first time! The boots were too small, but when Pat Verly is motivated to do something... nothing will prevent him! Boy, have I learned that to be a huge part of him after almost 32 years of marriage! He also likes to be rough and tumble and caused this fall to get some bodily contact and to tussle with me! Thank goodness for soft snow to fall in! The dating years were long distance and due to the demands of the farm - we dated maybe once every few weeks when he could certainly not every night or even once a week... at the busy times of the year it was even less, but Pat was very good about calling me on the phone and having long conversations about our lives... he gave me many lessons on the farm life in the middle of the nigh... when he would wake me up after he got in from work! I knew that when that phone would ring that it was my farmer! The thing about farming... similar to the Catholic Church... you never learn it all...there is always more to learn and my Patrick is very intelligent and very interested in it all!

I like to call this picture taken at our first Christmas....married 4 months....THE LOOK OF LOVE!

My mother probably took this picture of Pat and I at our first Christmas at their home in Mpls in 1978... I love it! To capture Pat looking at me with so much love and attention gives me warm feelings and delight! I need to remember this sometimes when I am feeling down about myself and if Pat is disappointed in me that hurts about as badly as anything can... Deep down we love each other no matter the obstacles!

Her name Hallel means Joy- Halleluia.... she reflects that inner joy when she is singing...

Little Sister Hallel has shared that when others say her name they are praising God with the highest of praise and Joy! There are many Hallel psalms including the last 5 psalms - 145 thru 150 and the grand Hallels are in the center of the psalms. the word means tall in French also and Hallel being much taller than most...this is humorous to the community! As a mother I am happy for her choice to be with the community of the lamb to see her happiness and joy... her face lights up in a way that cannot be anything but genuine happiness!

Finally I leave the nest!

I loved being with my family so much that finally after I had become an nurse - 4 years of college and lived at home... got a job at Hennipen County Medical center on the Neurolgoy station... and just went along day to day at home with my family including 10 yonger siblings... One day my mom asked me if I had ever thought of getting my own place... Oh, I tought... that is maybe something I should think about. I then rented a third floor of a house just a block from my parents' home. It was great! Close to my beloved family...yet my own place!

John with Bertha at the State Fair a few years back

Bertha took reserve champion with her calf in the cow-calf division a couple times for John at the State Fair... You can always count on Bertha! 4 H was a wonderful thing for our kids... It was the one time that they learned about livestock on a day to day basis with their dad. They also learned a lot of life skills including how to present themselves in front of people... this has developed into John's future wishes for a life profession... Ag and presenting himself to large groups of people however that all comes together... Lord hear our prayer for a long and bright future for John with you always number one in his life!

Quiet days of growth and reflection on "the farm"

Filled with love and excitement and joy as I studied Catholicism in the quiet of Wisconsin farm country... I expressed it with photoraphy, sketching, caligraphy, reading and marveling at the depth of the Church and all that I will be learning for the rest of my life! I will never come to the end of the learning and growing with OUr Lord and His Mother and all the saints at my side!

Two 5 month losses - both boys born after John - buried at the cemetary

William and John would have been very close in age - about 14 months... I went in for my 5 month check up and the heartbeat couldn't be found... an ultrasound revealed that he had died... I had some scary miscahrriages, so the thought of carrying him til I "lost" him was terrifying to me. I went through a 5 month abortion procedure to deliver my son. I had a postagladin suppository inserted and went through a horrible experience with pain and chills to deliver our tiny son,William. I held him wrapped in a blanket, and Pat and I shed tears at what could have been. It was winter and the ground was frozen...we took him home in a small box and put it in the freezer.. So hard to open it and face him and have the memories and tears come flooding me again. About two years later the same thing unexplainably happened... We lost Robert the same time and way... "It looks like his cord is fatally kinked." It was earth shattering to face another loss of a son and brother for John here on this earth... WE know that we have these children to be united with someday! These and the other 4 lost along the jounrney of our "nest". I feel that they were both the best and the worst years of my life! How I prayed that the Lord would give me one more child after John so that the world would see visible truth that "no, we were't just trying for our boy and that is why we ended up with 5 children! We were open to family!" Yet I am flooded with peace and even joy to know that all our children are with us whether here on earth and in heaven! I have named each of my children in heaven... Christopher lost between Ruth and Nancy, Thomas lost when my sister Mary died of Lymphoma in 1986, Joseph lost before John, William and Robert lost at 5 mo after John, and Mary lost at 3 1/2 mo in 1994. The prayer for them of their mother is a powerful experience for me as I remember them daily and many times feel that they are up there keeping me on the straight and narrow as much as possible. All I know is that I must need a lot of help to have that small spiritual army in heaven....

Journey towards trust

Heading to Sioux Falls two days after Father's day - John had an abnomal MRI - what can it be? Daisys from the ditch, Mary from the give away box at church represents her comforting us at this scarey time... the family pic taken the weekend before in St Paul... pasted in Susan as she was in France - yet we were united in spirit and soon Susan came to be with the family as we discovered that he had a "tumor" in his brain! Jesus we trust inYou!

John and his 4 sisters.... When asked the family he wants someday... "I want 4 girls and a boy!'

John surrounded by his loving older sisters... all 4 of them. "Mom, why don't I have any brothers?" Yet, he admits that he was very spoiled by his sisters! He considers them a blessing and now has brothers... two brother in laws... Paul and Joe... and fraternity brothers at Farmhouse Fraternity at the U of M! Now brothers and sisters are everywhere... and such an amazing support for John on the journey called cancer/healing.

"Eating their chin" out of love - Child for it's mother

Top Ruth being kissed by her daughter, Mary.... Jesus loved his Mother sooooooooo much!

Mary's perspective....

How can we ever suffer as much with our Lord as His Mother did?.... the "sword the pierced her heart"... so that she may support us and hold us close in those times of suffering in our lives... As a mother holds her young and gives it the unconditional nurturing love only a mother gives with all her heart and soul, with no thought to herself....

The five in 1991

Maria's first communion party... the 5 in a row... Ruth, Nancy,Maria, Susan and John

Thankful and prayerful for healing - John is cancer free!

Tuesday at Benediction - John basks in the forgiving loving presence of His Lord... the healing loving Great Physician! Jesus we trust in You! Feb 2010

All my children together in the more simple days!

A watercolor I did after I got an idea from a greeting card showing a mother on the hill with 3 girls and a cow.. made it my own by adding another daughter, a son and my own building site behind us.... someone asked later where Pat, my husband was so I added him on a horse going off to work the farm... Also added my 6 losses in the "cemetary"... it was nice to include all my children in this way.

A therapy painting after 5 losses

A watercolor I did with the 5 "boys" that I lost from 3mo pregnant to 5mo.. I wanted them all to be in some way touching me and that we would be together on a bench in heaven... later added a photo to represent the 6th loss

The five that we are blessed to have with us here... Six losses with us in Heaven - Family of 11!

Ruth, Nancy, Maria, Susan - Little Sister Hallel, and John

Our 9 precious grandchildren, with another one on the way

I got a call today from daughter number 3 that I needed to update my grandchildren picture - the number had doubled since... So here are the 9 together with Hallel when she visited in April. Ruth has 4 with another on the way - Simon age 8, Mary age 7, David soon to be 5, and Rose 13 months. Nancy has Augustine 2, and Bernadette 7 months. Maria has 3 children... Therese 5, David 3, and Patrick 8 months! So this is almost a complete picture except for Maria's two losses due to miscarriage, who are in heaven. We love all life we have been blessed with here and in heaven, and pray for each daily. Guardian Angels watch out for them. Jesus, we Trust in YOU.

New life on the farm

Calving begins in the Feb cold weather... first calf for this mother cow - we call it a first calf heifer

About Me

I am first and foremost a wife and mother. My husband,Pat, is a farmer in SW Minnesota... he is large on the crops and he also has over 100 cows that he calves out. I am a nurse, but was able to take 14 years off to raise my 5 children. I then returned to a hospice nurse position after my son, John, started school. I only work part time and keep busy with my family, a big garden with canning, yard work, involvement with my faith at the Catholic Church, and now grandkids living close by. I had the joy of watching my 3 grandkids while our oldest daughter worked half time as a nurse at the hospital in town. This past summer our lives were rocked when we discovered that our youngest, John, age 20 had a very rare form of brain cancer. Since Father's day... I have become his nurse and between his father and I... we have been with him for many different treatments in Rochester... the cancer is now in remission and we are hopeful to pick up life from here with all of us healthy and looking forward to many years ahead!

An interesting fact about the cows and calves in the pastures... Cow trails...

These two pairs are demostrating how they all walk in the same path or trail...If you look on the other side of the hill above them you can see a cow trail that they use on that side of the pasture. When you go out and walk in the pasture... you will see these paths that are very much used to the point that they are deep and there is no grass growing in them just like a well used people trail gets to be. On a very steep hill there can be teraces of many cow trails along the side where they will go single file like these two moms with their calves following along behind... I did see some of the calves get tired of the slow pace and run ahead, but it is obvious, when you see the trails,that the cows use them for the most part to get from one place in the pasture to another. How my husband loves to see them out there in the lush grass getting fat off of the grass that grows where no crops can due to the up and down land or the creeks that run through them and are also important for the cows and calves to get the water they need just like every living creature! My husband's idea of a romantic evening is to go out on the 4 wheeler or the pickup to look at the cows and calves in the 6 different pastures that we have! The kids have fond memories of going out to look at the cows in the back of the pickup - great vacation/family time!

It doesn't get much cuter than this - Ruth Ida Rose with a forever remembered baby kitty...

Ruth used this on her graduation card - so Ruthie as she was forvere an animal lover. She has a calmness about her that just makes animals comfortable. A few days ago she was out helping her dad and brother and I watched her kids... they both agreed that Ruth is good help out there with the cows and on top of it.. .. she enjoys her time out there... I think that I will watch the kids and Ruth can be out there from now on!

The Net team stops by as they come to the end of their year of serving Catholic Youth!

Our nephew, Sam Cross, has taken a year out of his life to work on the National Evagelical Team - they are Catholic Youth in their late teens and early 20s that travel the country in a van giving retreats to youth everywhere! Their homebase in St Paul, but they have traveled from coast to coast this last year and they themselves are from many places in the country and even a girl from Netherlands! In the picture Sam is standing all the way to the left by John. He lived with us a summer and learned about the farm and was in 4 H and FFA here. He showed cattle and pigs at the county fair and then went up to the State Fair with his projects and then worked in the Miracle of Birth barn for a couple of summers. Sam is a special nephew! He also has done many TEC retreats after he said yes to our request that he make a retreat and absolutely fell in love with TEC! Now he has taken it a step further in serving on this traveling retreat team with his guitar and wonderful joyful spirit... touching many youth along with the 10 youth that are on the team with him. Just before this picture was taken... Sam had given them rides back and forth on the loader to "see" the cows and farm scenes... Sitting to the far right of the tractor in the loader bucket is a girl from Minnesota named, Sarah. We struck up a conversation in the kitchen while I was cleaning up after the meal that we had shared... She started the conversation by asking me if I had always lived in Mn... I thought that I would wow her by starting off by saying; "No, actually I was born in Boston, Mass!" Her reply; "So was I!" That was a start of the most amazing give and take between us! We share so much in common and mostly I thought that she was probably me about 40 years ago when I was a new Catholic and so in love with EVERYTHING about the Catholic Church! She shared that her family of 4 girls and one boy and both of her parents converted from Episcopal to Catholic and why would you belong anywhere but the True Church!? ! Wow! I was blown away to meet someone on this long journey I have been on that is at the same place I was at that age! All of these youth are so amazing and I hope and pray and am really confident that they have touched deeply and positively many youth on their trek across the country! I asked the girl from Netherlands about the Catholic Church in her country... I have heard that it barely exists any more and she agreed that only the old attend church and otherwise those that are Catholic like her go with their families at EAster and Christmas... her friend told her that she would do the NET as she had done ahead of her and now a young person is returning to this country without God... filled with love and knowledge of her Church - Jesus and His Mother - It was a wonderful hour and a half and gave me so much hope for the Church and how the grassroots are strong and spreading our faith far and wide! Thank you Lord for all the work that is taking place in your church and please continue to use me and all those that are listening to and answering your call! Amen and Halleluia!

John the actor and his love of the stage and being in front of people - It was a fun ride!

This was John doing the "She thinks my tractor is attractive" skit for Arts In at the county fair in 4H a few years back... It is just so fun to see him in his element and it always amazed us to see how relaxed he was up there. Not like any of the rest of us! Now he hopes to take that love of the stage and put it along with his Ag background into some type of a job for his future... It will certainly be interesting to follow along and now with a year overcoming brain cancer and all that has meant for him... it has certainly taken him to a deeper and more compassionate place... We all await what the future will bring... Thank you John for all the FUN we have had following you as you share the joy with us on stage! It has been a fun ride! Jesus we know that you are in control of John's life and have a wonderful plan just for him! Jesus we trust in You!

Oh happy day! Another fun time with John...

First with a talent show at the Catholic School doing...Oh happy day from Sister Act and then again for 4 H share the fun... Finally with chior robes that we found at the Thrift store and with his sister, Maria, and cousins, Sam and Phil Cross... we enjoy the fun at Christmas camp. John even put it on for Easter when we went to visit Maria in the monastery. We shared a meal through the enclosure and John did the entertainment for all of us by putting on a chior robe and lip sincing.... Oh happy day for all of us... it was great entertainment that was good over and over!

He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. Jn 8:12

I came across this inside of a long letter that our daughter, Maria, had written daily to share her experience with us as she went from a Poor Clare Monastery in Sauk Rapids, Mn to one close to Washington DC... It was so hard to think that she could go so far away to a cloistered monastery... where we would have to go and see her there and never get a hug as she would be in the "enclosure". It was to the point of her entering and the mother superior asked her to write a letter saying that this was the right thing for her to do... she couldn't write it and was back home! We were shocked and amazed! After saying goodbye to her life... she returned and embraced it! I will never forget her out helping put the cows and calves out to pasture and saying how wonderful it was to be out there... Now that was a miracle! So often on this journey we have been weak, depressed, scared and lost... The image of Jesus picking up the weak lost lamb is so often coming to me... This is wonderful to be able to share here with all of you that are upholding us in prayer!

A miracle! We make it to France in the midst of John's brain cancer and after a brain biopsy!

One of my favorite pictures from France...Susan helping John walk through the rain down a path at Saint-Pierre. They have always had a close relationship... Susan was 3 1/2 years older than John... I lost two pregnancies between them and it was never kept from the kids... we all grieved together at the losses. Susan was thrilled with her little brother from day one. She was constantly caring for him and watching out for him. We have a family story that Susan saved John's life... I will save that for a later date to share. John discovered in France that he could walk at a normal speed leaving his walker behind and having someone under his weak side. I think that he enjoyed the closeness also. We were in France and it was totally due to prayer!

The way of the cross - Cancer strikes our 20 year old son!

John at Lourdes with his two sisters... LS Hallel in the habit she had just received as a new member of the community of the Lamb and Nancy. From the back as they support their brother it looks like he is on the cross. After the news about two months earlier that he had brain cancer and then the ataxia on his left side as a result of the biopsy they had to do to diagnose it... It certainly a cross like no other we could have ever imagined! Beyond our wildest nightmares! Just the day before we left for France he was able to get to the bathroom by himself for the first time! We could go to France to see his sister join the community, and go to Lourdes and bath in the miraculous and healing waters under the watchful care of our most Blessed Virgin Mother of God... Mary Most Holy! John truly turned from a heavy heart to one of hope at this point in the journey.

Little Sister Hallel here for Thanksgiving and spent a week with John.

A group shot over at Ruth and Paul's place... Little Sister Hallel - Susan here for a week. Took John back and forth to radiation, and we then had a family Thanksgiving up in the Cities with her other two sisters that live in ST Paul... Getting ready to head back to Kansas City. That is where she is living for the next year in the only community here in the US... Community of the Lamb... pictured are from left to right... Paul Lanoue, Ruth Lanoue, Little Sister Hallel, her dad Pat and John Verly. In front Mary with her kitty Purrrrrrs.

The two Davids...

Great Grandma with both Davids after Sunday mass in her sunroom- Feb 21,2010

Our prayers rise like incense before you, Our Lord and Our God!

Benediction on Tuesday night.... Giving our Lord honor and praise and worship! We are in awe of you coming to us in the humble form of bread... as it is transformed into your Body... food that gives us the strength to follow your example and embrace the cross in our lives! Jesus we trust in You! We honor and adore you now and forever! Amen